


The Tale of The Room Where It Happened

by Smol_Serotonin



Category: Original Work
Genre: Halloween, Horror, Original work - Freeform, bookstore, tw:blood, tw:death, tw:guns
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-02
Updated: 2020-11-02
Packaged: 2021-03-09 04:14:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,727
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27338503
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Smol_Serotonin/pseuds/Smol_Serotonin
Summary: Brent is telling his support group about what happened to him and why he quit his job at the bookstore.





	The Tale of The Room Where It Happened

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this for a scary story contest among friends and I was so proud of myself that I just figured I'd post it.

“Hey, my name is Brent. And much like the rest of you, I never thought I’d end up here in Occult Witnesses Anonymous. A support group for people who have seen, or done… not normal things. Countless therapists have tried to give me useless medications because they thought I was hallucinating or some shit. Nobody takes me seriously and I guess you guys are my last hope that I'm sane. I just want to feel some semblance of normal again but after what happened, I don’t think that’s possible.

  
I’ll just stop wasting your time though, and just get right into it. I work at a bookstore. Well, worked at a bookstore. It was a normal late night and I was closing. I had to stay a little later than usual that night because my co-worker, Brian, called off. It was just me and the few customers that came in and out. After it got dark though, there were no more customers. It was a thursday if I recall correctly so it wasn’t unusual that there weren’t that many customers in the first place. I busied myself with the task of putting books back into their place and cleaning. Those movements are so natural to me now that I just zone out as I do it. The only thing that snaps me back is the bell ringing to indicate someone has entered or left the store. I didn’t realize how much time had passed until I heard the little bell. It felt like I was hearing it as though my head were under water. It was muffled and far off. I remember looking to the door but no one was there and the door remained still. I remember telling myself that it was probably in my head so I shook it off and continued on. I realize now that that’s when I probably should have left. I stayed however, until I heard the bell a second time. That’s when I finally looked at the clock and It was an hour after my shift ended.

  
I remember being a little surprised at that but I still gathered my things and went to lock up. I left through the front door, turned the key in the lock, and faced the street. Or what was the street. The outside was just an empty void except for the patch of sidewalk I was standing on. I looked all around me. The store-everything was gone. I looked down, my heart beating out of my chest, and that’s when the ground beneath me disappeared too.

  
I screamed as I fell, but my voice was nothing compared to the void. Complete and utter darkness consumed me as hopelessness seeped into my bones. I don’t know how long I was falling for. It felt like years. By the time my weightless body smacked into the ground, my voice was gone. Oddly enough, it didn’t hurt. Thinking back it was probably my adrenaline running on high though. I got up. The ground was wet but I still couldn’t see anything. I felt for my phone in my pockets, almost convinced it would be dead or fallen out somewhere in my fall. But it was there. Relief flooded into my veins as I stood there, holding it like it was my last moment of sanity. And in a way, I guess it was. Then, I heard a scuttling noise that echoed around me. I snapped out of my relief haze and was painfully reminded of my situation. I fumbled with my phone. It’s light shone in my face and my heart dropped as I looked at the battery. It was at sixteen percent. That would not give me any time to get out of here. I turned on the flashlight anyways and looked around. Shiny damp stone walls glistened in the light of my phone. Moss was growing everywhere and rats ran around freely.

  
I was at a deadend. There was no place to go but forward, so I walked forward. It went on for ages. I threw rocks down the way a couple of times to try to hear if there was a turn or some sort of end in sight but all I heard was the rock hitting the ground and skidding to a stop somewhere along the way. After a while of doing this, my flashlight finally flickered out as my screen flashed a final warning that it was at low battery and was going into battery saving mode. It was at five percent now and the flashlight wouldn’t turn on. The panic really settled in as I turned the dim screen outwards to try to see anything at all but it did nothing for my ability to see. I still kept it out for security and kept moving. I felt along the wall to help me on my way and continued throwing rocks. My legs ached and my lungs burned. Then, I threw another rock into the void. It made no noise. I didn’t hear it hit the ground like the other ones. I stood still, holding my breath and listening close. I stayed still and unmoving for maybe half an hour. In that time, my phone completely died and I was left utterly alone in the dark, unable to even see my own hand in front of my face. The rock still hadn’t made any sound.

  
I had to make a decision, keep going and possibly end up falling down an endless void again or turn back and die at the dead end, waiting for help that will never come. I decided that falling to death was quicker and less painful, so I inched forward carefully. I toed the floor before me before committing to a full step and I clung to the wall for support. Every step seemed stable though and there was no emptiness for my foot to disappear through when I took a step. It was just solid ground. I was too scared to throw rocks anymore though because it felt like something was watching me. All around me I could swear I felt eyes somewhere in the cold bleak darkness.

  
I was shivering. It was cold. It was dark. I barely remembered what anything was like outside of this realm. At this point this was all I knew, shuffle on and hope I’ll find a way to escape. I reached out before me for the millionth time and my hand finally touched something. It wasn’t a wall, it was living. I looked up and saw it’s eyes in the darkness. They weren’t human. They looked at me as if I were nothing but another rat scuttling around. And maybe I was.

  
The figured leant down so our faces were barely centimeters from each other. Then it whispered something, it’s raspy voice clang in my ears. Then the figure said it again, louder. ‘Run.’ it said. And so, I did. I turned my heel and ran as fast as my legs could take me. I heard the figure’s laugh echo behind me. My heart pounded against my chest as I ran. I didn’t dare look behind me or even stop because I wanted to get away and never see that thing again. How I would get out, I had no idea but I had to find a way out. I had to get out. I wouldn’t survive down here.

  
I ran face first into a wall. I coudn’t have reached where I started already and yet I smacked right into force so solid it had to be a wall. I fell down and lay there for a moment, stunned. My chest heaved as I took in gulps of the damp air and let my brain catch up. That’s when I noticed the ground had changed. It was colder and not made of dirt and gravel. It was one continuous solid mass of some sort of metal. I sat up quickly and felt around. I was in a metal box all the way around. I was trapped. There were no ridges or openings, just all the way around solid metal. I banged on the side, hoping that maybe it was weak or if someone good could hear me. It was wishful thinking. The metal sounded thick and the only answer I got was that figure, laughing at me again.

  
I remember what it said to me then. It told me in its low raspy voice, ‘I find you entertaining. So, if you do one thing for me, I’ll let you go.’ I didn’t trust it but at this point I was hopeless and desperate. A lightbulb turned on above me and the room opened up more. I looked before me and there was my co-worker, gagged and tied to a chair, terrified. He screamed but stopped as the figure manifested behind me. ‘Kill him.’ It whispered into my ear. My co-worker looked at me with fear in his eyes. I looked down. I had a gun in my hand. I looked back at him and he shrunk away from me, begging me with his eyes to find another way. It was like I was empty then. My limbs were being controlled by someone else. In my head I screamed and pleaded to have control as I watched myself aim the gun and pull the trigger. The gunshot was loud. It rang in my ears and in a flash, my co-worker went from very alive, to very dead. He lay motionless as I watched the blood trickle down his face. I barely felt the figure pat me on the back as everything started to fade until it was only me standing before my deceased co-worker. I screamed. I ran to cover up his wound like that would help his state but as I reached out to touch him, he faded to nothing.

  
Then, in a blink I was before the bookstore again. It was night. And it had seemed like no time had passed at all. I quit on the spot. I had never heard from my co-worker again, in fact, nobody seemed to have remembered him. His name was Brian and I… I killed him. He’s been erased from every record like he never even existed. But he did exist and in that cold and unforgiving room, I killed Brian.”


End file.
